41 
( d .) The moral reasoning which forbids the supposition of so 
vast a period of gloom and barbarism as the theory of the 
opponents of Scripture chronology demands. 
6. It may be well, therefore, to mention that of the two most 
distinguished chronologers of modern times, Archbishop Usher 
and Clinton, the author of “ Fasti Hellenici,” while both alike 
reckon a period of 1,656 years, from Adam to Noah, the former 
dates the fall of man at B.C. 4004, while the latter places it as 
B.C. 4138, the difference between the two computations resting 
upon the exact interval between the Exodus of Israel and the 
building of Solomon’s Temple ; and I shall presently ask your 
attention to some Egyptian evidence on this much controverted 
portion of Scripture chronology. 
7. I conclude we are all agreed in considering that the 
absence of any definite eras in very early times is the cause of 
the endless disputes on the subject of ancient chronology. 
With the exception of one instance, mentioned in 1 Kings vi., 
respecting the era of the Exodus, as it might be termed, but 
which I shall have occasion to show is certainly not Scripture, 
and the recently discovered era of Noubti amongst the monu- 
ments of Egypt, referring to a period somewhat earlier in the 
world’s history, we have no evidence before the eighth century 
B.C. of the ancients having adopted any plan so simple for 
correcting chronology as that of the system of eras. 
8. Of the eras with which wc are most familiar, and which 
have necessarily tended to confine the variations of chronologers 
within a small compass, they may all be comprised within the 
limit of a few centuries, and three of them appear to have come 
into existence within the space of less than twenty-six years. 
Great wrote to his mother Olympias, with the narrative he had received 
from the Egyptian High Priest Leo, who had extracted the same from the 
national archives, a term of 5,000 years is assigned to the Assyrian kingdom, 
while in the more authentic Greek history only 1,300 years are reckoned 
for the same period. So the Egyptian chronology gives 8,000 years to the 
duration of the Persian empire, counting to the time of Alexander, while 
among the Greeks only seven centuries are allowed for the same. 
St. Augustine, who records this, suggests a possible explanation that 
“ the Egyptians are said to have formerly reckoned only four months to 
their year ,” though even this reckoning would make the Egyptian chro- 
nology longer than the Grecian. From which Augustine wisely concludes 
that if this “ differs widely in this matter of chronology from the credible 
account, how much less can we believe these documents, which, though 
full of fabulous and fictitious antiquities, sceptics would fain oppose to the 
authority of our well-known and divine Books of Scripture.” — Augustine’s 
City of God , lib. xii. c. 10, 
